INTRODUCTION TO GIS

JACK RUZAINI

jacketphisher@yahoo.com

16th AUGUST 2010

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A Geographic Information System (GIS) is a computer system that displaying, analyzing, capturing, storing and querying geographical data.

It also called “geographically referenced data”. Geographic data combines and links graphic representations of "features", or "events" found on the earth with corresponding tabular data, which is also called attribute data.

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WHAT IS GIS?

1854 – John Snow possibly the earliest use the geographic method depicted a cholera outbreak in London. He’s not only using cartographic methods but also analyze clusters of geographically dependent phenomena for the first time.

Early 20th Century – The development of photolithography which maps were separated into layers

1962 – Dr. Roger Tomlinson (known as father of GIS) developed Canada Geographic Information System (CGIS) in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

CGIS was the world’s first such an improvement of mapping application as it provided capabilities for overlay, measurement, scanning and digitizing. It also supported coordinate system, true embed topology and store the attribute and locational information in separate files. It was developed as continent-wide analysis of complex dataset and as a mainframe based system in support of federal and province resource planning.

1964 – Howard T. Fisher formed Laboratory for Computer Graphics and Spatial Analysis (LCGSA) at Harvard where number of important theoretical concepts in spatial data handling were developed.

1970 - LCGSA distributed seminal software code and system – SYMAP, GRID and ODYSSEY 3

HISTORY OF GIS

Early 1980 – M&S Computing, Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI), Computer Aided Resource Information System (CARIS) and ERDAS emerged as commercial vendors of GIS software which successfully incorporating many of the CGIS features, combining first generation approach (separation of spatial and attribute information) and second generation approach (organizing attribute date into database structures)

Later 1980 & 1990 – growing the use of GIS on Unix workstation and personal computer.

End 20th Century – rapid growth of GIS where user were begin to export the concept of viewing GIS data over the internet, requiring data format and transfer standards.

Recently – a growing number of free, open source GIS packages run on a range of operating system and can be customized to perform specific tasks.

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HISTORY OF GIS

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COMPONENTS OF GIS People – Viewers, general users, database

administrators and GIS Specialist  

Procedures - how the data will be retrieved, input into the system, stored, managed, transformed (coordinate system, projection, vector-raster-vector), analyzed, and finally presented in a final output. 

Hardware - the technical equipment needed to run a GIS including a computer system with enough power to run the software, enough memory to store large amounts of data, and input and output devices such as scanners, digitizers, GPS data loggers, media disks, and printers.

Software - GIS software packages that capable of data input, storage, management, transformation, analysis, output for both graphical and descriptive data.

Data – Lineage, Positional Accuracy, Attribute Accuracy, Logical Consistency, Completeness is important.

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GIS DEVELOPMENT PROCESS

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GIS DATA TYPE

GIS technology utilizes two (2) basic types of data:

1. Spatial Data - describes the absolute and relative location of

geographic features.

2. Attribute Data - describes characteristics of the spatial features- These characteristics can be quantitative and/or

qualitative in nature.- Attribute data is often referred to as tabular data.

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GIS DATA TYPE (Spatial Data)

Spatial data model falls into two (2) main categories:

1. Raster-based format - represents features as a matrix of cells in continuous space.- Each layer represents one attribute. - Most analysis occurs by combining the layers to create new layers

with new cell values.

2. Vector-based format - represents each feature as a row in a table, and feature shapes are

defined by x, y locations in space. - Features can be discrete locations or events, lines, or polygons.

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GIS DATA TYPE (Spatial Data)

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GIS DATA TYPE (Attribute Data) Also called a Tabular data or descriptive data. It is

statistical, numerical, or characteristic information that can be attributed to spatial features. 

the tabular data is stored by the GIS software which

allows it to be accessed and viewed, usually in a relational database format. 

Attributes that may be useful to assign to a feature would be population of an area, traffic measurement of a road, or types of landmines in a particular area. 

The GIS software allows the attribute data to be linked to the spatial data in such a way that it gives the attributes a location. Two or more tabular databases can be linked when there is a common data filed. 

A GIS user, after integrating both spatial and attribute data, has the capability to learn a great deal about the defined study area.

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GIS DATA REPRESENTATION

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APPLICATION OF GIS (Effective Crime Control Using GIS)

Sources: http://www.gisdevelopment.net/application/military/defence/mi04184.htm

Title of Paper: Effective Crime Control using GIS Name of Author: Dr. R. Sahu & Peeyush

Srivastava Published Year: 2004 Abstract: how law enforcement agencies can use

GIS to control the crime and apprehend the offenders; the paper gives the details of how GIS cane be effectively used for two most popular mechanisms of crime control; reducing crime and investigating crime.

Methodology:

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APPLICATION OF GIS (GIS Applications for Dumping Site Selection)

Sources: http://proceedings.esri.com/library/userconf/proc98/proceed/to150/pap107/p107.htm

Title of Paper: GIS Applications for Dumping Site Selection Name of Author: M. M. Yagoub and Taher Buyong Published Year: Abstract: The use of GIS in locating a suitable dumping site due to increasing of

commercial, residential and infrastructure development and population growth. Methodology:

The aim of this paper is oriented towards developing a user interface for selecting a dumping site in Langkawi-Malaysia with special emphasis on ease of use using ArcView 3.0a from Esri.

The main intention here is to reduce the circle (access to existing functions) through which non- GIS user will revolve around ArcView to carry out suitability analysis (modeling).

The ability to describe complex geographic modeling with straightforward options for a greater number of users is well recommended by many researchers (Wilson, 1990).

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Health and Anemities planning

Market Research

Operations Management - Distribution and Retail Services

Spatial Information Services - Tourist & Tour Operators

Spatial Services Management – Defense and Disaster Management

Spatial Services Management - Land & Utilities Planning & Management

& Many Others

GIS APPLICATIONS ADVANTAGES

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GIS APPLICATIONS ADVANTAGES

• Interactive Visualization/Analysis

• Planning and Management

• Spatial Data Management and Access

• Environmental Risk Assessment

• Multi-Dimensional Planning

• Custom Applications Development For Decision Support

• Web-accessible Spatial Information

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REFERENCES

• GIS

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geographic_information_system

• Components of a GIS

http://maic.jmu.edu/sic/gis/components.htm

• GIS Application

http://www.gisdevelopment.net/application/index.htm